Any time you pass Babe Ruth on any list that’s a good thing. Of course, Jeter did it this weekend. Despite the fact that I worked crazy hours I was able to see it happen live on TV.
It brings up an interesting question to me, where does Jeter rank? Not just where does he rank as a short stop but where does he rank as Yankee? Of all organizations, the Yankees have had enough greats to fill volumes of books.
So I’m starting to like Lance Berkman less and less. The Yankees won a good one today. they dealt with the Red Sux as you would think they should.
But A-Rod didn’t play. Why, you ask? Because Berkman hit him during batting practice. Now, we could blame Joe Buck. The story goes as I understand it that A0Rod was sauying hi to Buck when Berkman hit the ball. Then he rolled around clutching his calf.
Could you imagine if this happened before #600?
Sometimes, you can just be too daggone smart for your own good. The Yankees proved that tonight, losing to the Red Sox 6-3.
Now there was nothing in the game per se that supports my argument. Well, besides the fact that Javier Vazquez was pitching in a big game and I’ve been killing his inability to pitch in big games so there’s no need to stop now. I know, I know he hasn’t been that bad most of the season.
A-rod hit his 600th home run. It was a monster shot. Even people that hate the Yankees and A-rod had that to say about it.
The interesting thing is the muted response from much of baseball. I’m going to leave all of the race accusations to someone else. Not because I don’t care but mostly because I don’t believe they are true.
I think the muted response has more to do with the fact that in reality our expectations rarely meet up to our reality.
Someone once told me to always pick dead people for heroes because a dead person wouldn’t be able to let me down.
There comes a time in every man’s life and I’ve had plenty of them.
~Casey Stengel
The Yankees lost again tonight. And the offense looked worse than anemic, it looked like the Republican PR machine during the last Presidential election.
Of course, the defense looked more porous than my wife’s humus rocks. Giving up runs like they were doing a charity dance. Now, it would be easy to say that I warned you. It would be easy to say that I said, A-Rod’s home run chase would become a distraction because, well I did say that.
You can’t say you weren’t warned.
You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. ~Jim Bouton, Ball Four, 1970
So the trade deadline has come and gone. The Yankees were extremely active. But are they better than they were two weeks ago?
The simple answer is yes. We’re certainly not worse. Every player we got, we got for a song and a dance. I actually heard a guy on the radio today moaning and complaining about the unfairness of the Yankees situation.
Here’s the thing, Berkman, Kearns, and Wood are not the players most people probably think of when they first hear the names. They are serviceable. They will do steady work. They may even get really hot at some point in the next three months. But they don’t make the Yankees significantly better. What these acquisitions do more than anything else is keep these players off of the Rays and Red Sox.
2 things:
1. Buck Showalter who hates the Yankees was hired as the Orioles manager. I love that he’s in their division and that he’s on a terrible team that will get hammered by them this year. He’s a good manager but has a bit of a grudge for how things ended in NY.
2. The Yanks/Rays series that starts tonight will be really interesting. 2.5 games back the Rays have been tearing the cover off of the ball and their pitching has been fantastic. This series will go a long way towards setting the tone for the rest of the season. Get your popcorn ‘cuz you know there’s going to be a show. 
Have you heard? Roy Oswalt went to the Phillies! My oh my! Roy oh Boy. I had two thoughts about this.
My first thought was, “Well, I wonder if the Philly fans will start crying about “buying” a championship now. Of course, they won’t. They won’t stop and cry for the Pirates or the Astros.
